Bishop O’Connell still looking for first BBC title

Despite being the third most active team in Beach Ball Classic history, the Bishop O’Connell Knights out of Arlington, Virginia are still looking for that elusive BBC title.

The Knights, coached by Joe Wootten, son of legendary Morgan Wootten, have delivered some prime talent to the classic through the years, including Kendall Marshall, Marcus Ginyard, Melo Trimble and more. But that talent hasn’t delivered the title that his father won in 1984 and 1985 with Dematha Catholic. Bishop O’Connell played in the finals in 2002 and 2012, losing to McQuaid Jesuit in the ’02 match-up and Whitney Young in the 2012 event.

The Knights have played an active schedule in the BBC history with their 28th game here today, just short of Dematha with 31 games, and Archbishop Malloy participating in 36 games.

Opening their 2016 campaign against Westlake (7-4, Atlanta, GA), Bishop O’Connell (7-3, Arlington, VA) led wire to wire and forced Westlake into just a 26.0 field goal percentage in route to a 61-36 opening round victory.

The Knights slowly moved out to a double-digit lead in the opening half, taking a 30-9 lead into the locker room on a Matt Lewis jumper at the buzzer. Westlake connected on just 3-of-22 from the field in the opening half for a13.6 field goal percentage.

Bishop O’Connell was led by Nate Watson’s 18 points and 11 rebounds while teammate Matt Lewis chipped in with 15 points and 10 boards for the Knights. Chuma Okeke paced Westlake with 15 points and seven rebounds.

Dillard 68, Father Henry Carr 60 – Dillard (10-3, Ft. Lauderdale, FL) trailed by double-digits before storming back in the second half to defeat Father Henry Carr (11-6, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) to advance to the quarterfinal round.

After leading 33-29 at halftime, Father Henry Carr scored the first seven points of the second half to take its largest lead of the game at 40-29 on John Akende’s 3-pointer with 14:14 on the clock. The Crusaders continued to hold the double-digit lead at 47-37 with 11:45 to play when Dillard started its impressive run.

The Panthers took over on the backboard and turned rebounds into transition points during a 20-0 that proved to be the winning stretch for Dillard. Deshawn Bartley’s layup with 5:30 remaining capped the run and gave Dillard a 57-47 lead. Akende drove the length of the court to stop the bleeding for Father Henry Carr at the 3:34 mark but it would prove to be too little too late for the Crusaders.

Dillard was paced by Jordan Wright’s 27 points as he connected on 11-of-18 from the field and added eight rebounds. Raiquan Gadson added a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Panthers.

Father Henry Carr was led by Akende’s 16 points.

Imhotep 73, Christ the King 34 – Imhotep (5-1, Philadelphia, PA) built a double-digit lead less than six minutes into the game and never looked back with a 73-34 victory over Christ the King (4-3, New York, NY) to advance to the quarterfinal round.

Imhotep scored the first basket of the game but found itself down 3-2 on a 3-point field goal by Christ the King’s Tyson Walker. Imhotep responded with a 6-0 run and went on to stretch the lead to as many as 26 points in the opening half. The 39-point cushion at the end of the game was the largest lead for Imhotep.

University of South Carolina signee David Beatty led four Imhotep players in double figures with 16 points. Fatayn Wesley added 15 points off of the bench for Imhotep while Daron Russell and Bernard Lightsey added 13 and 11 points, respectively.